Not-margarita pizza

Guess who found her way back to the kitchen? I don't cook nearly as much as I should. Case in point: my original plan was to make beef and broccoli, but when I was planning it out with my mom I told her I'd never cooked with beef (outside of hamburgers) or made rice before. Her response: "But you're 22 now."

Yeah, Mom. I know.


Well, I chickened out of the beef and broccoli (that'll be for another time). I found a recipe for a margarita pizza that looked so good, but when we went to the store they didn't have fresh basil, and the fresh mozzarella was way too expensive to use with dried basil. So I kind of made up my own recipe.

I bought a pre-made crust to save time, a small can of pizza sauce and used basil from Graziano's Italian market.

The cheese is a pizza blend, and I think it had a much better flavor than plain shredded mozzarella. (Don't compare it to fresh mozzarella, though — you can't beat that.) Then I added thinly sliced fresh Roma tomatoes.

The pizza took about 12 minutes to bake at 450 degrees and about 20 minutes to prepare two of them. I like anything I can whip up quickly and easily after work so it doesn't take up my whole night.

After we took it out of the oven, I asked Adam to take a couple photos for the blog. This is what happened:

And 46 (seriously??) photos later...we actually got a couple good ones.

Voila! It's no margarita pizza, but my last-minute, budget-friendly version was still pretty tasty.

What are your favorite homemade pizza toppings? Have any other recipes I should try? I'd love to hear...